Trump 'ready and willing' to make a deal as shutdown chaos continues

01/01/2019

- Senate compromise revived: Lawmakers could revive a deal reached in August by Shelby and top Appropriations Committee Democrat Patrick Leahy to provide $1.6 billion for border barriers, including about 65 miles (105 km) of pedestrian fencing near the Rio Grande River.

The president's demand for "border security" funding triggered a partial government shutdown with no end in sight. "They say it's old technology - but so is the wheel". But like the proposal now on the table, it did not meet Trump's border-wall demands.

The Latest on partial shutdown of the federal government, now in its second week.

Pelosi has not heard formally from the White House since December 11, when she and Schumer had a contentious Oval Office meeting with the president, Democratic aides said.

Trump and the Democrats have clashed over border funding before, resulting in a brief government shutdown in January 2018. Democrats said the White House offered $2.5 billion for border security, but that Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told Vice President Mike Pence it wasn't acceptable.

Opponents - especially in the Democratic party but also some in Trump's Republican party - say that a physical wall is impractical and that the idea is being used as a political tool to whip up xenophobia in Trump's right-wing voter base. He tweeted Thursday evening that Democrats may be able to block him now, "but we have the issue, Border Security".

- Trump blamed the deaths of two immigrant children in USA custody on Democrats; Kelly blamed chaos at the border on former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Trump says a wall is needed along the whole border to keep out migrants trying to enter the country illegally, casting them as an "invasion" force of unsafe criminals.

-Mexican border early in his administration, but said that parts of the barrier would be "see through".

Kelly, set to be replaced by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, who will serve as acting chief of staff, said he made sure the president had access to detailed information prior to making decisions, even though the president says publicly that he goes with his gut instinct.

Trump wants $5 billion as a down payment on the barrier that could cost more than $20 billion, but Democrats have only agreed to $1.6 billion to improve border security, but no wall money.

Mr Kelly, who will leave his post on Wednesday after 17 months in the job, made the admission in an extensive interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Reacting to Kelly's comment, New York Times" Maggie Haberman tweeted: "Kelly says the "wall" was abandoned as a concept early in the administration.

"And what Donald Trump and the Republicans want to do is waste $5 billion in taxpayer money on an ineffective medieval border wall that is a fifth-century solution to a 21st century problem".

"We've heard nothing. A negotiation by definition has to include both sides", White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told CNN's "State of the Union".

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said he will only put a bill on the floor if President Trump will support and sign it. Independent agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, are also affected. At the time, Trump proposed a sweeping amnesty for children brought into the USA illegally and their relatives in return for wall funding and immigration reforms. Gates are closed at some national parks, the government won't issue new federal flood insurance policies and in NY, the chief judge of Manhattan federal courts suspended work on civil cases involving US government lawyers, including several civil lawsuits in which Trump himself is a defendant.

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